Maxis has announced today the anticipated Android Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola Xoom will be made available from 6th May onwards. We will be getting the WiFi only version as the 3G version is mentioned to be not available outside the US at the moment.

So how do you get connected you might ask? Maxis is offering a bundle of the Motorola Xoom together with the robust Motorola Defy for a combo price of RM2499. The connectivity for the Xoom is supposedly to come from the Motorola Defy through its portable hotspot feature as mentioned via twitter. Although this is workable, having hotspot enabled would be taxing on the smart phone’s battery and isn’t a recommended solution long term. It would be better if you could connect with a proper WiFi router while the Defy’s hotspot feature is used only when it is absolutely necessary. If we can have it our way, we would prefer the Xoom to be paired together with a MiFi device.

There’s no full details on the bundling plans yet but all should be revealed next Friday. To register your interest, head to Maxis Tablet page here.

We’ve just receive a media invitation to the launch of the Motorola Xoom happening on April 28 which serves as confirmation that the tablet will be launched just a day before the iPad 2 in Malaysia.

The Motorola Xoom will be the first tablet in the country to run Android’s tablet only Honeycomb OS. With a 10.1-inch screen, 32GB of on board storage, a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP forward-facing camera, 1GB of RAM with a 1GHz dual-core processor, the Xoom is the iPad 2’s closest competitor and the most competent.

But the next-gen specs on the Motorola Xoom come with a hefty asking price — USD$799 for the 3G version and USD$599 for the WiFi version. For Malaysia, it is almost a certainty that we will be getting the WiFi only version.

The launch partner for the Motorola Xoom is none other than Maxis and it will be interesting to see what sort of plans the telco will introduce considering that the Malaysia-bound Xooms are WiFi only devices which don’t really need a telco plan.

This development is bound to make quite a number of iPad 2 would be buyers think twice and adopt a wait and see approach. If the price is right we’re pretty sure that there will be a few that’s going to forgo the iPad 2 and go for the Xoom instead.

Immediately after we posted the iPad 2 Malaysia launch story, a very reliable source has revealed to us that Maxis is planning to launch the Motorola Xoom “just before” the rumoured iPad 2 Malaysia launch date. Earlier last week Maxis opened its registration of interest for the Motorola Xoom.

While the source declined to elaborate what “just before” means exactly it is fairly safe to assume that both tablets will not be launched on the same day. At the very least, the Xoom will make its Malaysia debut a day before the iPad 2 which means April 28 is looking like a very likely date.

At the same time, by revealing this piece of information, the source is indirectly adding credence to the April 29 iPad 2 Malaysia launch rumour.

So, are we looking at the launch of two very exciting tablets next week? Very likely it seems.